Kiki Smith (American, b. 1954)
Moon Three, 1998
Three photogravures 24 3/8 x 19 ¼ in.; 32 1/4 × 24 in. frame
Kiki Smith is best known for reintroducing figuration and the female body into American contemporary art in the late 1980s and 90s. Her father, Minimalist sculptor Tony Smith, surrounded himself with artists like Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko, who were invested in making abstract and non-representational art. Kiki Smith took her practice in the opposite direction exploring a variety of narrative subjects including the celestial world, natural science, animals, and religion.
Smith’s triptych, Moon Three, uses scientific photographs taken at Columbia University’s astronomy observatory that depict the phases of the moon. The imagery is a subtle reference to Smith’s interest in the cosmos and our ever-changing understanding of space and time. Smith is one of the leading contemporary artists working in the field of printmaking today. Her work is in the permanent collections of most major national and international museums.
More information about Kiki Smith can be found here:
https://art21.org/watch/extended-play/kiki-smith-printmaking-short/